The Moon: It is as low in the sky as I can ever recall

Just Curious .. why ? Or does it happen all of the time .. and I just
didn't notice...thanks

In article
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Stone Newbie be patient please wrote:

Just Curious .. why ? Or does it happen all of the time .. and I just
didn't notice...thanks

A Full Moon near the summer solstice traces a lower (and shorter*) arc
through the sky than it does in other seasons, because at that time its
position in the sky is near where the Sun is found at the _winter_
solstice, its furthest excursion into the opposite hemisphere.
Conversely, a midwinter Full Moon climbs high -- like the midsummer Sun.

The inclination of the Moon's orbit to the ecliptic (the Sun's apparent
path through the sky, or the projection of the Earth's orbit onto the
celestial sphere) makes the effect more pronounced in some years than in
others. How high or low the midsummer Full Moon appears to travel, as
compared to the track of the midwinter Sun, depends on where it is WRT
its ascending node (aka the Dragon's Head), the point where its orbit
crosses the ecliptic from south to north. When halfway between the nodes
(at 90° or 270°) its latitude will reach the extreme value of nearly 6°,
north or south. Since the Moon's orbit precesses, wobbling like a
slightly tilted, spinning top, the nodes drift backward around the
ecliptic, taking about eighteen years to make a revolution. Accordingly
the depth of the minimum altitude of midsummer Full Moons rises and
falls from year to year, ranging over some 12° as it goes in and out of
phase with the Sun.

You missed the most recent trough in the cycle -- when the interference
was most constructive, so to speak -- which came last summer here in the
Northern Hemisphere; even though this year's Full Moon was closer to the
solstice than 2007's, its most southerly declination was about half a
degree less. Still nearly as low as it gets, though! Around 2016 the
midsummer Full Moon will be as far north as it gets -- only 'lowish'.

---

* Transiting low implies rising well south of East and setting well
south of West; OTOH transiting high means the ends of the diurnal arc
are displaced to the north. These extrema in the bearings of moonrise
and moonset near the solstices, the "lunar standstills", correspond very
closely to alignments of stones in many megalithic monuments, Stonehenge
being the most famous example. Imagine how many years of observation it
would have taken to track these cycles!

--
Odysseus

On Jun 18, 9:42 pm, Stone Newbie be patient please
wrote:
Just Curious .. why ? Or does it happen all of the time .. and I just
didn't notice...thanks

Earth seasonal tilt isn't getting any less. Haven't you noticed the
tidal situation is also increasing (that's mostly via global warming
giving us more oceans to work with).

btw, we're also losing our magnetosphere at the rate of -.05%/year.

- Brad Guth Brad_Guth Brad.Guth BradGuth

On Jun 20, 8:06�am, BradGuth wrote:
On Jun 18, 9:42 pm, StoneNewbiebe patient please

wrote:
Just Curious .. why ? �Or does it happen all of the time .. and I just
didn't notice...thanks

Earth seasonal tilt isn't getting any less. �Haven't you noticed the
tidal situation is also increasing (that's mostly via global warming
giving us more oceans to work with).

btw, we're also losing our magnetosphere at the rate of -.05%/year.

�- Brad Guth Brad_Guth Brad.Guth BradGuth

Thank you all. Not that I understood ALL OF IT...but just enough
to get by : - )